The plaintiff Wilson resigned his position as the athletic director for the defendant Northland College after investigation for two sexual harassment complaints. Wilson and the college signed an agreement upon his resignation that restricted what the college could say about the situation to the media. The college radio station subsequently ran some stories reporting on Wilson's resignation. Wilson sued for, inter alia, breach of the separation agreement. The college moved to dismiss and the Western District of Wisconsin recently granted the motion in Wilson v. Northland College, 17-cv-337-slc (behind paywall).

The problem was Wilson couldn't identify any term of the contract that the college breached. The contract set forth a joint press release to be issued and stated that "[t]o the extent that either party is asked by a media source of any sort to provide an additional explanation, both parties will state that the mutually agreed upon statement speaks for itself." The college issued the require statement and the college radio host, beyond reporting that Wilson had resigned, did not provide any reasons for the resignation and referred to the press release, exactly as the contract required.

Wilson's main arguments were that the press release was supposed to be the college's only statement and that no college employee (which the radio host was) could speak about Wilson's conduct, sexual harassment, or investigations in any way. But the court concluded that that was not what the contract called for and the radio host's statements that the college would not comment for the reasons behind the resignation beyond the press release complied with the college's contractual obligations.